Tag Archives: Marc Brown

How could I forget the wonderful Arthur books? I know I said only the other day that Arthur brings me out in a rash. But I meant that other – serious – one. Today I’m on about Arthur the Aardvark. I’d not forgotten about him at all. Just the books. Because he’s a television star. Him and little sister DW and all their friends.

It was a throwaway comment on facebook about Arthur a while back that made me realise I’m not the only intelligent (cough) adult who is a great fan of the best aardvark on children’s television. Any television. Of all aardvarks, come to think of it.

So many adults came forward to chat about species and Binky Barnes, etc, that I can only hope there are also children out there who like Arthur. He can’t be just for us oldies? Actually, Offspring – the junior version – liked him a lot. Like, even. I suspect it’s one of the few programmes from back then that we would all happily sit down and watch together and enjoy.

But as I said, there were the books. We have lots of them, I discovered, when I’d dispatched the Resident IT Consultant into the attic for something else. I think I bought so many in order to tempt Daughter into reading. We were just wanting to bridge that gap between thinking about it and actually reading.

We have sticker books and picture books and early readers. And I happen to love them as much as any child. Even today. There is a lot of wisdom in there, especially from DW (who is not something you grease stubborn locks with, although I do get confused about this). Arthur’s neighbourhood is full of interesting characters, and in the American way, it’s a mix of people from different backgrounds. Rich, poor(er), aardvarks, bunnies, colours, brains.